


Bright Lights

by Elaeda



Category: Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Relatively Canon Compliant, at least at first
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:54:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24263923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elaeda/pseuds/Elaeda
Summary: Slowly, the bits and pieces that have been lost are being untangled, and more and more does Pac question his own efforts to learn the truth.An attempt at writing a proper ending to the series.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	Bright Lights

The ding of the intercom snapped him back to his senses. The following announcement, unfortunately, was too staticy and quiet to make out. Pac made an attempt to shake out the disorientation, establishing that he was still in the airship he fell asleep in.  
It had been rough. They left for Roundonia first thing in the morning, Pac only got about four hours of sleep, getting up before dawn to take a relatively early flight. It hadn’t been long into the flight before he fell asleep, and he only just woke now, finding the early daylight had already evolved into mid morning.  
Elli sat to his right (the window seat), engrossed in some sort of competitive dress up app on her phone. Spiral was to his left, making small talk with Cyli beside him.  
Pac sighed and absentmindedly flipped through his phone, not being able to pay attention to any of the options on it. Finally, he managed to open his notes, typing out the dream.  
He was at a beach. His parents were there. His friends were there, but he only knew half of them. Betrayus showed up, but didn’t do much else but argue about petty things Pac could no longer remember. They were going to grill some fish, but the dream sadly ended before Pac could eat any.  
That was all he could remember. He turned off his phone.  
“Still having weird dreams?” Spiral asked him.  
“Yeah.” Pac responded. “This one wasn’t bad or anything. Just really weird and vivid.”  
“Well, as long as they aren’t nightmares!” Cyli assured him.

Pac looked out the window, realizing he forgot to check the time, despite having just been looking at his phone. “What time is it?”  
Elli looked up. “It’s 10:45. We’ll be there in about an hour.”  
“Y’know,” Pac mused. “I’ve never really heard that much about Roundonia. I mean, I knew it existed, but I’ve never really looked up the history on it.”  
“It’s mostly viewed as a historical city now.” Cyli added. “Or even a tourist attraction.”  
“We are going there to tour, so I guess it’s serving that purpose.” Pac said.  
“It got pretty destroyed by the war.” Elli explained. “It was still being repaired when my mom took me there, and that was a few years later.”  
“It was mentioned to us in a few history classes.” Cyli said. “There were an awful lot of battles there.”  
“And that was all they said?” Elli seemed shocked.  
“Yeah.” Spiral confirmed.  
A pause.  
"Weird." Was all Elli could say. "Oh Well, there's plenty to do there, so we will at least find something of value there."  
"Hopefully Pacopolis can manage a few days with us gone." Spiral said.  
"It'll be fine." Pac reassured him. "Pinky said they'd tell Betrayus we're leaving next week. It should buy us some time."  
"Gotta be prepared." Cyli said.  
"Speaking of prepared," Pac pulled out his berry tube. "I made sure to grab a few power berries before we left, just in case anything happens."  
"So what do these ones do?" Elli asked.  
"Well, let's see." Pac emptied a few onto the tray in front of him. "This one's a metal berry, it turns me titanium. Then this ones a wizard berry, this one gives me garlic breath-"  
"That's… specific."  
Pac nodded. "Yeah, some of them get pretty weird."  
"No kidding." Spiral mused. "A week or two ago we found one that turned Pac into a building. What's the point of that??"  
"That's very weird." Elli agreed. She went on to point to a little purple-blue berry. "What's this one?  
"This is… uh…" Pac picked it up, studying it. "Actually, I think this is just a regular old blueberry.”  
“Oh.”  
“Well, free snack!” Pac tossed it in the air and gobbled it down. It took a few seconds for him to realize the others were staring at him.  
"What is it?"  
"Pac." Cyli said. "It literally just turned you blue."  
Pac looked down at himself and indeed, he had turned a deep indigo colour.  
"Oh. Well, now we know what that does, I guess."

\-----

"Where are they?!"  
Betrayus kept smashing the remote, switching from slug cam to slug cam to slug cam. He'd been searching for the past two hours, every inch of the city he could possibly think of, yet he couldn't find the Pac-brat, his friends, or his own niece anywhere. He dramatically flung himself back onto his throne.  
"I can't believe Elliptica, my niece, would just turn on me like that! And then she ran off with the Pac Brat on top of all this?!"  
"To be Fair," Butt-ler mused "Nobody tends to respond well to being threatened with death."  
"Perhaps they left already?" Dr Buttocks suggested.  
"They better not have." Betrayus said. "It hasn't even been twelve hours! Is it even possible to book a domestic flight on that short notice?"  
"Actually, they're still here!" A shrill voice called out from the other side of the room. The three ghosts looked over to see Pinky emerge from behind a wall, followed by Inky, Blinky, and Clyde.  
"Then where are they?" Betrayus asked.  
“Well,” Blinky piped up. “they were in a diner this morning. Larry filmed them there.”  
Betrayus brought that up on the screen. Sure enough, The four pacworlders were in some sort of breakfast diner, participating in meaningless small talk, enjoying what appeared to be bacon and eggs.  
“Wait a minute, that was almost three hours ago!” Dr Buttocks turned to them. “They could have gone anywhere within that time!”  
“They couldn’t have gone far, we just have to figure out where they are.” Inky tried to reassure them.  
Betrayus stared them down. “Then find them!”  
“Us?” Clyde asked. “But we-”  
“Go! Find out where they are and tell me! And you better have learned something by the time you come back!”  
“Sure thing!” Blinky said in response. "We'll be back in no time!"  
The four quickly left before any more could be asked of them.

\-----

Thankfully, the effects of the blueberry wore off by the time the airship reached Roundonia. It wasn't long before they reached their hotel, and unpacked there.  
The 15th floor provided a nice view of the city, especially since it was one of the tallest ones this far away from it's business area. Pac looked out wistfully, taking in all the details of the city. It was much smaller than Pacopolis; he could actually see the outskirts some ways away. The skyline was different, there weren't nearly as many buildings as he expected.  
"You think my parents could be here?" He asked Elli as she walked by to set some things on the shelf.  
"It's been a while. Maybe."  
"I mean, last time I heard they were in space."  
"We could find evidence of where they went, and why."  
Pac sighed. "Yeah. Hopefully we get at least that much."

“So,” Spiral sat down and unfolded a travel brochure. “Where should we go first?”  
“Maybe we could get some lunch?” Pac asked.  
“We already got some food from the cafeteria in the airport!” Elli said.  
“And on the plane!” Cyli added.  
“Okay, yeah, but I’m still hungry. There're so many cool places I saw that I wanna try!”  
“Well, we should check out the historical museum first.” Elli suggested. “There’s a few things there that might help us.” She turned to Pac. “And there’s a cafe there, don’t worry.”

\-----

And so their first stop was the museum. It was near the center of town, in what was claimed to be none other than the castle the ruling yellow ones used to reside in.  
The four of them stood in its shadow, taking in the sheer size of the thing. They were used to large buildings, but none so old like this.  
A lady approached them. “Hello! You must be the group with the tour reservation for two thirty. My name is Lena, I’ll be your tour guide.”  
“Great!” Pac said. They started walking toward the doors.  
“So,” Lena said. “You’re just about the last yellow one left?”  
“Yeah.” Pac said. “My parents might still be alive somewhere, but I’ve been the only one around for almost my entire life.”  
They entered the main reception room. The four of them looked around in wonder. Every wall in the room had at least a dozen paintings, all depicting royalty from various eras in history.  
Pac hadn't seen this many yellow ones before.  
However, something felt off about a few of the paintings.  
Take for example, the one hanging above the hallway they were standing in front of. The subject in the portrait had been drawn quite accurately compared to the more abstract figures in the rest of the room. The realism, however, made it all the more disconcerting that the lady in the portrait had five eyes, all of different colours.  
They seemed to be staring at him.  
Pac gulped, and turned away, trying to ignore it.  
"They sure, uh," Cyli stammered. "Sure took a lot of… artistic liberties, huh?"  
"That's one theory." Lena responded as if nothing was unusual. "Other historians suggest that's what they actually looked like."  
Pac hummed with concern. "So I could have been born with too many eyes?"  
"Guess you got lucky." Spiral suggested. "Unless having a few extra eyes helps you see better, or something."  
"There haven't been any reports of such cases since the middle ages." Lena assured them.

They entered the hallway. Here, there was a collection of artifacts that Pac couldn't name.  
"And this-" Lena gestured to a glass sphere in the center of the hall. "Is the orb of envy. It was created in the Pactorian era for the young Prince Cyrus. It is said to bring wealth and fortune to those who touch it. And no, you aren't allowed to touch it." Her strained smile suggested she’d heard that question too many times.  
“Awww.” Spiral groaned.  
“What’s supposed to be here?” Cyli asked, pointing to an empty display bracket.  
“Oh!” Lena gasped. “That’s where the Ribbon Flare Stone is supposed to go. It got stolen a few years back. It was a really big news story at the time. Not many people remember it nowadays, though.”  
“I saw it.” Elli piped in. “I was here only a month or so before it disappeared. It was really pretty. Shame it went missing.”

“Uh, guys?” Spiral asked. “Is the fortune ball thing supposed to float?”  
“What? No.” Lena said before turning to said fortune ball thing, and promptly freezing in her tracks. Pac followed her gaze.  
It was, indeed, floating.  
"Huh. That's weird." Elli said.  
The ball hovered a few moments longer before it plummeted to the floor, shattering into a million tiny pieces.


End file.
